Linkage between Innovative Management and
Student-Centred Approach:
Platform Theory for Effective Learning
Yin Cheong CHENG
Centre for Research and International Collaboration
Hong Kong Institute of Education
Invited Plenary Speech
At the Second International Forum on Education Reform:
Key Factors in Effective Implementation
Held by
The Office of the National Education Commission
2-5th September 2002
Bangkok, Thailand
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Linkage between Innovative Management and
Student-Centred Approach:
Platform Theory for Effective Learning
Yin Cheong CHENG
Hong Kong Institute of Education
In current educational reforms in different parts of the world, how to ensure the
relevance of school reforms to students’ effective learning is a major concern in
implementation. In particular, when school-based management is a major movement
giving schools more autonomy and flexibility to procure and use resources in
management and conduct educational activities at the site level, people are concerned
with how education decentralization can be managed with a clear structure and
direction for facilitating student-centred approach of teaching and effective learning
of students. The international failing experiences of school reforms in the past decade
alarm educators and reform leaders to pay serious attention to the linkages of
education reforms with students’ effective learning (Cheng & Cheung, in press;
Caldwell and Spinks, 1998).
This presentation aims to show how to build up a strong linkage between
innovative management and student-centred approach through the application of the
paradigm shift in learning, the platform theory and the insights of implementation of
school-based management in the past years.
Implications from Paradigm Shift in Learning
As highlighted by Cheng (2000, 2001), there is paradigm shift in learning
from the traditional site-bounded learning to the new triplization learning in the
century (see Table 1). In the new paradigm, learning should be individualized,
localized, and globalized with aims to create unlimited opportunities for studetnts’ life
long learning and for development of their contextualized multiple intelligence (CMI).
Student is the centre of education. Students’ learning should be facilitated to meet
their needs and personal characteristics, and develop their potentials particularly CMI
in an optimal way. Students can be self-motivated and self-learning with appropriate
guidance and facilitation, and learning is a self-actualizing, discovering, experiencing,
and reflecting process.
Therefore, teaching and schooling should be conducted in a student-centred
approach.
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Table 1: Paradigm Shifts in Learning
New Triplization Paradigm
Traditional Site-Bounded Paradigm
Individualized Learning:
Reproduced Learning:












Student is the centre of education
Individualized Programs
Self-Learning
Self-Actualizing Process
Focus on How to Learn
Self Rewarding
Student is the follower of teacher
Standard Programs
Absorbing Knowledge
Receiving Process
Focus on How to Gain
External Rewarding
Localized and Globalized Learning:
Institution-Bounded Learning:












Multiple Sources of Learning
Networked Learning
Life-long and Everywhere
Unlimited Opportunities
World-Class Learning
Local and International Outlook
Teacher-Based Learning
Separated Learning
Fixed Period and Within Institution
Limited Opportunities
Site-Bounded Learning
Mainly Institution-based Experiences
Innovative School Management Aiming at Effective Learning. From the
above paradigm shift in learning, some implications can be drawn for innovative
school management aiming at promoting student-centred approach and effective
learning in the new century, as shown in Table 2.
Innovative Management for Individualized Schooling. School should be
managed as a facilitating place for students’ learning. School itself is developed as
contextualized multiple intelligence environment for supporting students to develop
their multiple intelligences. Each school has its own strengths, potential, and
characteristics. Based on their strengths, different schools can manage schooling in
different styles to maximize their own contributions to students’ learning. The focus
of schooling is to arouse curiosity and motivation of both students and teachers to
think, act, and learn in a multiple intelligence way. The schooling is managed as an
open process to initiate, facilitate, and sustain self-learning and self-actualization of
students and teachers. It provides opportunities to share the joy of learning and
teaching among teachers and students. To face up the challenges in the new century
and pursue contextualized multiple intelligences, school is a continuously learning
and developing organization, involving institutional continuous discovery,
experimenting, actualization, reflection, and development.
Innovative Management for Localized and Globalized Schooling: Schools and
their schooling should be managed in such a way such that all types of transfer,
adaptation, and development of related values, knowledge, technology, and norms can
bring in local and global resources, supports, and networks to maximize the
opportunities for their developments and their contributions to students’ learning and
teachers’ teaching. There are multiple local and global sources of teaching and
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learning – self-learning programs and packages, web-based learning, outside experts,
community experiental programs, etc. - inside and outside the school, locally and
globally. Parents and communities, including social services, business, and industry,
are actively involved in schooling. The partnership with them is necessary to support
effective networked schooling and multiple sources of learning. Locally and globally
networked schooling can provide a wide spectrum of learning experiences and
maximize opportunities for teachers and students to benefit from various settings and
cultures. With the help of globalized schooling, students can learn the world-class
experiences from different parts of the world. Schools can maximize the opportunities
for teachers and students to enhance the quality of teaching and learning from local
and global networking and exposure. Schools in the new century paradigm are
conceptualized as world-class and networked schools.
Table 2: Innovative School Management for New Learning
Innovative School Management
Traditional School Management
Individualized Schooling
Reproduced Schooling


School As the Central Place of Education

School as Source of Knowledge and
Qualifications
Standard Schooling Style
Place for Transfer
Qualifying Process
Achieving Standard
As a Bureaucracy






School As the Facilitating Place for
Students’ Learning
School as a Multiple Intelligence
Environment
Individualized Schooling Style
Place for Curiosity
Open Process
Sharing Joy of Actualization
As a Learning Organization





Localized and Globalized Schooling:
Site-Bounded Schooling:


School Isolated from the outside world




Weak Community Linkage
Separated Schooling
Site-Bounded Schooling
Limited Opportunities for learning




School Coupled with Multiple Local and
Global Sources for Learning
Community and Parental Involvement
Networked Schooling
World-Class Schooling
Unlimited Opportunities for learning
Implications from High Value-Added Competencies in the
New Century
In facing the challenges from a new era of globalization and knowledge-based
economy, students need to be equipped with a new set of quality and competencies to
be surviving and excelling in the future in such a fast changing environment.
According to Levin (1997), there are 12 personal competencies for high value-added
industries in the new century, including initiative, cooperation, working in groups,
peer training, evaluation, reasoning, problem-solving, decision-making, obtaining and
using information, planning, learning skills and multicultural skills. In order to
facilitate students to achieve these high value-added competencies for their future,
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teaching approach, educational practices, and school management should be changed
from the traditional mode of education that emphasizes on achievements in
examination, repeated exercises and practices, memory of knowledge delivered by
teachers. The key implications for innovative management of learning and teaching
activities are summarized in Table 3.
Table 3:
High Value-Added Competencies and Implications for
Educational Practices and Innovative Management
High Value-Added
Competencies
Implications for
Educational Practices & Innovative Management
1.
Initiative

Greater school focus on independent endeavors for students
2.
Cooperation

Increased emphasis on cooperative learning where rewards are provided
for cooperative process and its outcomes
3.
Working in
Groups

Organize learning tasks into group endeavors rather than the extreme
emphasis on individualism and individual competition
4.
Peer Training

Raise students’ experience in peer tutoring in the schools.
5.
Evaluation

Student is given more experience in developing and applying evaluative
criteria and in grading and evaluating their own work and that of student
colleagues.
6.
Reasoning

Require the development, application, and sharpening of reasoning skills
of students in classrooms and schools.
7.
ProblemSolving

Raise students’ experience in solving problems that are situated in realistic
situations
8.
DecisionMaking

Provide opportunities for students to have continued practice in
problem-solving for choosing among alternatives.
9.
Obtaining & Using
Information

Raise students’ experience in seeking and selecting the types of
information that are needed for problem-solving and decision-making,
obtaining it, and using it properly.
10. Planning

Raise students’ experience in choosing activities and objectives and in
setting out activities to meet those goals over a specific time horizon.
11. Learning Skills

Require an orientation on how to embrace new learning situations as well
as the inculcation of styles of learning that work effectively for mastering
new skills and knowledge.
12. Multicultural Skills

Emphasize the study of foreign languages and cultures as well as
experiences in human relations activities among different groups.
Adapted from Levin (1997)
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As a whole, the implications are quite consistent with those above from the
paradigm shift in learning, with strong emphasis on student-centred approach and
clear linkage of innovative management and practice to each type of value-added
competencies. For example, “self initiative” refers to students’ drive and creative
ability to think and perform independently in learning. According to Levin (1997), the
implication from this value-added competence for innovative practice is to put greater
school focus on independent endeavors for students in learning activities in
comparison with the present emphasis on school and teacher-directed activity.
“Working in groups” refers to the competence on social interaction in group
work, that can direct towards both achieving the assigned task and developing the
group relationship. The implication for innovative management of educational
practice is to organize learning tasks into group endeavors rather than the extreme
emphasis on individualism and individual competition in traditional practices of
school management.
Similarly, the implications from all these 12 high value-added competencies can
provide clear and concrete linkages of innovative management of educational
practices to facilitate students’ active and effective learning and develop such
competencies that are important to their future.
Platform Theory: Building Up Linkages for Effective
Learning
The platform theory proposed by Cheng (2001b, c) can provide a comprehensive
theoretical framework to review and conceptualize the linkage of innovative
management with effective learning, teaching and schooling as shown in Figure 1.
Platform is a new powerful concept in conceptualizing and organizing various
types of existing resources, technology, knowledge, and even social and cultural
capital to form an intelligence-intensive and technology-intensive platform or
supporting environment, that can enable and facilitate people to work and perform in
a smart and optimal way. Unlike the traditional concept of organizational structure
with focus on control and coordination, platform is mainly for supporting people with
the necessary knowledge, technology and social environment such that they can have
the maximum opportunity to develop themselves and perform at their highest
potential in their work.
School-based management or educational decentralization should aim at
developing as a school-based platform that can accumulate, organize and apply the
necessary knowledge and technology, useful experiences, networks, various types of
internal and external resources, and social support to support educational practice and
innovation for effective teaching and learning, facilitate organizational learning, and
develop a culture of professionalism within a school. For the detail of how
school-based management can be developed such a platform or mechanism for
continuous development and effectiveness, please refer to Cheng (1996).
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Figure 1:
Platform Theory for Effective Learning, Teaching and Schooling
Students’ Future:
Effective Life-long Learner
Key Elements
in Linkages
Effective Learning
Paradigm shift in L & L
Learner-Centred Approach
Commitment,
Motivation,
Efficacy,
Self-actualization,
Continuous Self-learning,
Unlimited Learning,
Learning Group /Culture
School-based Management
as A School-based Platform
for Facilitating Effective Learning & Teaching
Central Education Platform
Knowledge,
Technology,
Innovation,
Networking
Social Support,
Professionalism
Learning Community
as a Knowledge-intensive and Technology-intensive Platform for
Innovative Learning, Teaching & Management in all Schools
At the system or regional level, a central education platform should be formed
with the support of information technology and various types of local and global
networking. This central platform aims to pool up the most powerful and relevant
knowledge, expertise and resources from local and global sources to create a more
knowledge-intensive, technology-intensive and intelligence-intensive central base for
supporting the development of all types of school-based platform and related
initiatives. On this central platform, schools, teachers, and students can work on a
higher level of knowledge to develop their school-based initiatives and avoid
unnecessary wastage of time, resources and efforts due to repeated “re-inventing a
wheel” or “start from scratch”. This central platform is also a huge network or
learning community for sharing the advanced knowledge, best practices and
experiences of success and failure among schools, educators and experts (Mok
&Cheng, 2001).
The key elements of the school-based platform and central education platform
are accumulation, dissemination, and application of knowledge and technology to
promote various types of innovation, networking and social support and develop a
culture of professionalism and learning community in education, that can support
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paradigm shift in education and effective learning, teaching and schooling.
With the linkage and support of the school-based platform as well as the central
platform, the key elements in effective learning and teaching are students and
teachers’ commitment, motivation and efficacy to promote and achieve learning as
continuous self-actualization and self-learning and create unlimited opportunity for
learning, developing learning groups, and evolving learning culture among students
and teachers (Cheng, 2001b,c; Mok & Cheng, 2001).
Example of Linkage between School-Based Management
and Student-Centred Approach in Hong Kong
Hong Kong started the school reform towards school-based management in 1992.
After a few years in successful implementation in over hundreds schools, all one
thousand and two hundred public schools had to implement school-based
management in 2000 (Education Commission, 1997). After reviewing the rationale,
progress and experiences in December 1995, the Advisory Committee understood the
importance to explicitly spell out and establish the linkage of school-based
management to facilitating effective learning in the framework of school-based
management. As shown in Figure 2, this framework sets closer linkages of
management direction, financial management, staff development, and accountability
converging to effective teaching and learning and improved learning outcomes (SMI
Advisory Committee, 1995).
In order to ensure the effectiveness of educational decentralization to learning, a
task group was established to evaluate the impacts of school-based management on
educational practices since 1993. In 1997, the task group reported that the findings of
the study of good practices and noticeable effects of school-based management
implementation in some schools have summarized some important observations, as
shown in Figure 3 (Task Group on Evaluation of SMI, 1997).
The findings indicate that the major components of school-based management
-- including participation of teachers and parents in school management, systematic
planning and reporting of school activities, and flexibility in the use of resources -can make a contribution to school management and operation, staff’s teaching
practice, and students’ learning activities and outcomes. It is also clear that SBM
provides better opportunities and school conditions for facilitating human initiative in
such a way that key school actors are more motivated to develop their own effective
practices in activities of managing, teaching, and learning to serve their school-based
needs (Cheng & Cheung, 1999).
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Figure 3:
The Linkage between School-based Management and Effective Learning
Management Direction
 Vision-oriented school management committee /
advisory council
 Clear mission & goals
 Collaborative decision-making
 Active teachers/ parents / past students participation
Financial
Management
Staff Development
 Staff training
 Staff appraisal
 Transformational
leadership of school
managers, principals
and teachers
 Devolved
responsibilities
 Block grant
 Programme budget
Accountability
 School development
plan
 Annual School Profile
 Performance
assessment
Effective Teaching & Learning
 Meeting needs of students, teachers
& community
 Teacher professionalism
 Innovative and student-centred
learning
 Recognition and promotion of best
practices
Improved Learning Outcomes



Effective schools
Outward-looking school culture
Continuous improvement
(Adapted From SMI Advisory Committee, 1995)
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(Evaluation & review)
Figure 3: Summary of Findings of Practices and Effects
(from: Task Group on Evaluation of SMI, 1997)
Good practices and noticeable effects identified
Participation in school
Systematic Planning &
Flexibility in the Use of
management
Reporting of School
Resources
Activities
Effects on school
management/ operation
 catalysed the setting up of
PTA
 facilitated the development
of collaborative culture in a
school to cope with changes
and innovations
 improved system of
operation
 encouraged creative input
from teachers
 promoted team spirit and
increased job satisfaction of
teachers
 aroused the concern of staff
development
Effects on school
management /operation
 facilitated the formulation
of shared vision and
common goals
 encouraged systematic
review of school
performance, planning
for school development
& communication with
parents
 promoted teacher
professionalism through
the writing up of school
plan
Effects on teaching practice
 teachers found it easier to
cope with changes
/innovations
 standard of teaching was
raised through professional
development
Effects on teaching practice
 teachers had better job
orientation
 teachers were more
competent in making
professional judgment
Effect on student learning:
 school activities were more
student-centred
Effect on student learning:
not conclusive


Student Learning Outcomes
it took time to see student learning outcomes
there was sign of gradual improvement
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Effects on school
management /operation
 encouraged innovations in
using resources, e.g.
installing above standard &
non-standard equipment,
virement of funds,
provision of
above-standard services
etc.
 took less time to buy the
required equipment
Effects on teaching practice
 teachers got the required
facilities promptly which
would support their
teaching practice
 teachers participated in
budgeting their teaching
plans
Effect on student learning:

use of resources was more likely
to match the needs of students
Concluding Remarks
The ongoing education reforms should aim at facilitating paradigm shift in
learning and teaching and strengthening the linkage of innovative management or
school-based management with student-centred approach for effective learning. The
implications from the paradigm shift in education and pursuit of high value-added
competencies ask for serious reconsideration and re-engineering of the process of
learning, teaching and schooling. With the application of the platform theory, the
school-based platform and the central education platform should be developed and
built up to provide the intelligence-intensive, knowledge-intensive and
technology-intensive platform and network for students and teachers to maximize
their potential and create unlimited opportunity in achieving effective learning and
teaching for students’ future as life-long learners in the new century.
As an example, Hong Kong experience in school-based management may give
some insights on building up the linkage between innovative management and
student-centred approach in school education.
It is hoped that the implications from this paper will benefit those educators and
leaders who are committed to building up a new education for their students to meet
the challenges and pursue excellence in the future.
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